Why Bernie Sanders thinks he can win California this time

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, greets supporters at the Navy Pier in Chicago on March 3.

Photo: Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press

Sen. Bernie Sanders isn’t conceding California in the Democratic presidential primary race to home state Sen. Kamala Harris. Far from it. Top Sanders campaign officials say he’s planning to have field offices and run commercials across the nation’s most populous state.

“We’re going to have a robust campaign in California.” said Ben Tulchin, Sanders’ San Francisco-based pollster, adding that “Bernie is extremely well-positioned” in California. “It will be a well-funded media and field campaign.”

A lot has changed in Sanders’ world since his 2016 presidential campaign, when he lost the California primary — and the Democratic nomination — to Hillary Clinton. The Vermont independent wasn’t well known then outside his home territory, so his campaign was largely focused on introducing him to voters, particularly in Latino and African American communities.

That has Sanders’ campaign predicting he will do well in the early states with large numbers of Latinos, including California and Nevada. If Sanders can corral Millennial and independent voters as he did in 2016, “we think that’s a winning coalition in California and beyond,” Tulchin said.

Combine that with the $10 million that Sanders raised in the week after he announced his 2020 campaign, and his top operatives feel they’re in a much better position than last time to compete in big states like California.

Ah, but it is so early in the campaign. Everybody’s optimistic now. It’s just like spring training predictions in baseball. Everybody’s thinking World Series.

Here’s one sign that the Sanders campaign is far ahead of where it was the last time he ran for president. Then, pollster Tulchin wasn’t hired until October 2015, just four months before the Iowa caucuses. Now, we’re nearly a year away from the first voting, and Tulchin is already on the payroll.

Joe Garofoli is the San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer, covering national and state politics. He has worked at The Chronicle since 2000 and in Bay Area journalism since 1992, when he left the Milwaukee Journal. He is the host of “It’s All Political,” The Chronicle’s political podcast. Catch it here: bit.ly/2LSAUjA

He has won numerous awards and covered everything from fashion to the Jeffrey Dahmer serial killings to two Olympic Games to his own vasectomy — which he discussed on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” after being told he couldn’t say the word “balls” on the air. He regularly appears on Bay Area radio and TV talking politics and is available to entertain at bar mitzvahs and First Communions. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and a proud native of Pittsburgh. Go Steelers!